Marjorie Agosin was born in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1955. She has written many books of poetry and fiction. Her childhood and early adolescence were spent with her Jewish family in Chile, where her family also participated in the dominant Catholic culture. The young Agosin became keenly aware of her dual identity in her country, both as a participant and as an outsider. The overthrow of Salvador Allende forced her family to immigrate to Athens, Georgia, where she was then ostracized as an emigrant.

She is a professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. The poet's current residence is in New England.